The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has warned spare parts dealers in the country to be candid in declaring the cost of their imported goods to the authority for appropriate taxing.

Commissioner of Customs, Isaac Crentsil, who engaged the spare parts dealers to negotiate some custom charges charged on their goods, said anybody caught dishonestly understating cost of goods will be held to pay a penalty.

“When you fake documents and we get you, you are going to pay penalty”, he warned.

He advised them to be honest.

“The bottom line of all that we have done today is that traders must give us the actual invoice and not faking documents”, he said.

This follows complaints from the spare parts dealers about import charges they consider hidden and the attitude of some customs officials which they accused of being corrupt.

Section of the Spare parts dealers in the stakeholder conference in Accra

Their frustrations were made known at a stakeholder conference between executives of the customs division of the GRA and the Spare Parts Dealers Association in Accra, Wednesday May 9.

Among the grievances were penalties which they said they suffer due to wrong calculations by officials at the port and several “unprofessional behaviors of customs officials”.

Clement Boateng, acting chairman of Abosey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association explained that despite the removal of 10% import duty charge, they were still paying high prices for other charges at the port and this he said led them to embark on several demonstrations in the past.

Mr. Crentsil acknowledged that there were indeed some discrepancies in the valuation process but said measures have been put in place to work hand in hand with spare parts dealers to rectify the situation.

“So now we have set our system such that identified all items that are set and items that are pieces and we have put it in our valuation system which is going to be applied”.

Intercepted containers

Meanwhile, Tema Customs of the Ghana Revenue Authority, has intercepted a total of six 20ft containers at the port of Tema containing goods which were declared as transit goods to Burkina Faso but ended up at a warehouse at Tabola, a suburb of Accra.

A 20ft container intercepted by the officials of the Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority

According to the Sector commander of the Custom Division at Tema, Dr. Godfred Okoh Appiah, over GHS 900, 000 could have lost as revenue to the country.